Shakespeare meets Dickens get in the mood for Christmas

The ATB community room was packed to the walls for Shakespeare in the park’s second annual Shakespeare meets Dickens’ fundraising show, Dec. 12.

I was only able to stay for a couple Christmas Carols, and Richard Epp’s Reader’s Theatre adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “ A Christmas Carol.”

It was well done, with a lot of familiar faces reading the Christmas Classic. They had several different narrators including artistic director Kate Connolly. There were also familiar faces from previous Shakespeare in the park production including this summer’s ”A Comedy of Errors.” Cole Fetting stood out in numerous roles as did Austin Halarewich as did Jeff Graham’s Bob Crattchett.

Two different actors read the role of Scrooge including Bryson Brown, who read the first part of the story and John Poulsen took over mid way though the story.

Bell ringer Lucy Graham added sound effects and soundscape including the chiming of the clock as Scrooge waited for his ghosts to visit.

A couple beautiful singers wound up the first half of the show as Chris Peterson, who starred in Romeo and Juliet last year, sang a sultry version of “ Santa Baby” as she wove through the packed floor.Stephanie Savage, who was stage manager for “A Comedy of Errors” displayed her gorgeous voice on “ All I Want For Christmas is You.”